Progressive Democrat Issue 59: NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST ALITO

This is from MoveOn.org:

As we begin the new year, Washington is turning its attention toward Samuel Alito, the far-right judge President Bush nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. The Senate hearings are only a few days away, and we've reached a critical time to act.

When applying for a top job in the Reagan administration, Alito proudly touted his membership in the "Concerned Alumni of Princeton,"1 a far right group that sought to restrict the admission of women and minorities. The group was so extreme that even fellow alumni Bill Frist called their views "distorted, narrow and hostile."2 Now, Alito claims he "cannot recall" ever being a member.3

Unfortunately, this is just one example of Alito's many decpetive attempts to hide his extreme right wing views on issues like civil rights, worker's rights and privacy. That's why we're aiming to deliver 50,000 letters to the Senate this week opposing Samuel Alito and demanding a Supreme Court nominee we can trust to protect our constitutional rights.

You can write and send your letter online.


Writing a letter to your Senators just takes a minute, and you don't have to be an expert—just tell your Senators why opposing this nomination is important to you. You can get ideas below.

There are many reasons to oppose Alito, and the leading national advocates on civil rights, privacy, worker's rights, women's rights, the environment, gay and lesbian rights, and religious liberty have all opposed Alito. To help you write your letter, we've included some of their reasons for opposing Alito below.

Alito has shown a disturbing record of being willing to say anything to get a job—citing his extreme views in some cases, and hiding them in others. Here are two more examples of this kind of deception:

Constitutional views: When applying for a job in the Regan administration, Alito wrote of his strong strong belief that the Constitution does not legally protect a woman's right to choose.4 Last month, he claimed that he only said it to get a job.5 If he would deceive about something so important for that job, what would he say to get on the Supreme Court?

Judicial ethics: During the nomination process for his current post as a federal judge, Alito promised the Senate, in writing, that he would not rule on cases that he had a personal financial stake in.6 He broke that promise, repeatedly.7

All Americans can agree that we must be able to trust the Supreme Court to protect our core rights and freedoms and act with integrity. Alito's extreme views and record of deception make him the wrong choice for our country.

As the far-right barrages the Senate with millions of dollars of advertising and swarms of lobbyists, it's critical that your senators hear from directly from you. Please take a minute to write your Senators and help us deliver 50,000 personal letters opposing Alito's nomination to the Senate in the next week.

Standing up to President Bush and stopping this nomination will require extraordinary courage from our representatives in Washington. But pushing our leaders to actually lead is what you do best, and this is a fight we can win.

Thanks for all that you do,

–Ben

P.S. In the past two months, dozens of organizations across the political spectrum, representing millions of Americans, have publicly opposed Alito's nomination. Here's just a few, and what they had to say:

AFL-CIO

"We are compelled to oppose [Alito's] nomination to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. ...Judge Alito's decisions and dissents show a disturbing tendency to take an extremely narrow and restrictive view of laws passed by Congress to protect workers' rights, resulting in workers being deprived of wage and hour, health and safety, anti-discrimination, pension and other important protections."8

NAACP

"We have undertaken an extensive review of Judge Alito's civil rights record spanning his career as a lawyer and a judge...As a result we have concluded that Judge Alito's confirmation would cause a substantial shift in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on civil rights and that his confirmation would be to the detriment of the nation. Thus, we are compelled to oppose his nomination."9

Sierra Club

In the first such move since the Bork nomination of 1987, on December 20 the Sierra Club joined with other national environmental groups to urge Senators to oppose the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. Americans deserve mainstream, independent Justices, with unassailable integrity, who will protect individual rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, Judge Alito's opinions and other statements, combined with a disturbing lack of candor since being nominated, show that Judge Alito cannot be trusted to protect those rights and freedoms.10

NARAL Pro-Choice America

Samuel Alito, Jr. of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is an anti-choice jurist. As a member of the three-judge panel that heard Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey before the case went to the Supreme Court, Alito wrote a dissent in which he argued to uphold even more abortion restrictions than the Supreme Court eventually upheld in its now-famous decision. Alito, who has been called "a favorite son of the political right," would likely vote to eviscerate or eliminate the protections of Roe as a member of the Supreme Court.11

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

According to Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., the First Amendment puts
few limitations on politically powerful majorities' ability to use the
machinery of government to advance their religious views, even at
the expense of the religious freedom of minorities. Replacing Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor with Judge Alito would fundamentally alter
First Amendment law and immediately put at risk many of the crucial
protections for religious minorities that the Supreme Court has
recognized and consistently enforced over the past sixty years.12


The Human Rights Campaign

As a Judge, Samuel Alito struck down a school policy that protected gay students from harassment. He is far to the right of Justice O'Connor on due process and reproductive rights. Judge Alito's narrow view of Congress would dangerously threaten Congress' power to enact non-discrimination legislation protecting citizens and has failed to distance himself from a group that advocated discrimination of which he was a member. In short, Judge Alito is the wrong choice for the Supreme Court.13


People for the American Way

Samuel Alito has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since his appointment by the first President Bush in 1990. In that time, Alito has compiled an extensive, extreme right-wing judicial record on numerous matters of importance to the protection of the rights and interests of ordinary Americans—a record that has earned him the nickname "Scalito" for his ideological resemblance to Justice Antonin Scalia. Alito's judicial opinions demonstrate that he is an out of the mainstream opponent of fundamental legal rights and protections for all Americans and must not be confirmed to the Supreme Court.14